AKfish
Super Member
- Joined
- Oct 1, 2004
- Messages
- 5,417
- Location
- Alaska
- Tractor
- JD 5115M; JD 110 TLB; JD 4720; Ford 9N; JD X300R
My personal take on the 110TLB is that it hurt JD's sales of larger machines. It also may have represented a maintenance nightmare for contractor/owners who worked their machines hard and had wear/failures. The machine would be perfect for homeowners or most of us, but the bigger commercial TLBs can take a lot more abuse and keep going. Kubota has small TLBs, but they have no commercial sized machines to be threatened by sales of smaller machines. Perhaps if JD had painted the 110TLB green instead of yellow, more people would think of it as more of a tractor than a full-time workhorse.
These are just my random thoughts and based on what I've thought about that machine from the beginning. It's a great machine, but I doubt it can take the rigors of daily construction site work. I don't think it can compete well with the many offerings from Kubota in small TLBs and also mini-excavators. All of this is just speculation. . .
Well... that's what we're all doing - speculating! :laughing: I agree with your premise that the 110 "softened" the backhoe market for Deere's larger hoes. When I was looking - the price of a new 110 versus the price of a used commercial hoe always entered the calculations. And, if a prospective buyer either 1.) did not buy a used 310, etc. or 2.) did not buy a new 310, etc. because they opted to buy a 110 - well, that has both a direct and indirect effect on JD's commercial hoe market.
The competitive position of the 110 versus Kubota's offerings is another market question, altogether. Price is a significant factor.. if it's too high - the buyer will likely buy smaller or used. If they buy smaller - Kubota wins that round. If the buyer is hard set on a particular size and capacity of TLB - in the 110 range - the 110 compares most favorably with either the L39 and the L45. I crawled all over the 39-45 and played with 'em (no hard work with the dealer's new models..) and believe the 110 to have more "iron" than the 39 and every bit the equal of the 45. Buying choice comes down to personal ergonomics and favor of control surfaces and dealership relationship. Now, I believe that the discontinued L48 was a more capable machine than the 110. But, it had some transmission issues that put it at a disadvantage.
As far as not having the build characteristics that enabled it to work commercial jobs day in day out - the very same could be said about the Kubota lineup. None of them are 310's or 580's or Komatsu's 140-150's.
But, compared to the standard green iron or standard orange iron - they're night and day - better, stronger, more durable.
Nonetheless, folk's will buy a less durable tractor with more horsepower before they'll buy a heavier duty tractor with less horsepower for an equal price - IMO. The small, TLB's are just that - lower hp but heavier duty than their standard lineup cousin's. And they don't pencil out on a Hp/$$ curve compared to the standard lineup.
AKfish